Whine Meal returns after an unintentionally long hiatus. Features music by Non-Bio.

Notes about this episode:

Being a Christmassy episode, this one contains more violence and nudity than previous installments.

Originally scheduled for a Christmas 2010 release, this cartoon was held up once by burglars stealing my computer and then again by an infant-related laptop breakage in 2011.

Further to the incidents above – and on a considerably more tragic note – my friend Laura ‘Ruby’ had for a long time wanted to do a voice cameo on one of my cartoons. She played a ‘walk-on’ part in this episode but died earlier this year without seeing it completed. The episode is dedicated to her memory.

This is likely to be the final episode of Whine Meal. I made episode 1 four years ago and I’m delighted that it’s continued for six episodes (or seven if you count the 2010 April Fool’s joke) but much has changed in those four years; not only in my personal life but also in the wider world. Due to pressure from Apple and the rapid encroachment of HTML5, Flash is a dying format and therefore animations of this kind are dwindling in popularity. I’m not planning to jump ship entirely – at least not yet – but I feel my time could be better spent now expanding into other animation techniques, particularly 3D ones. Itchimus and Lionel might return, but then again they might not. I really can’t say!

*spoiler alert!* The version I uploaded to Newgrounds has been slightly re-edited; this is in response to the recent school shootings in Connecticut. Newgrounds is a primarily American website and I didn’t want viewers to think the final scene of my cartoon might be poking fun at a real-life incident. The original edit can be seen on Youtube or my website.